Director: Kristian Levring
Starring: Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, David Bradley, David Calder, Bruce Davison, Brion James, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Peter Kubheka, Janet McTeer

- Reviewed by Linda

Easily one of the best films I saw at the Seattle International Film Festival, The King is Alive is a gritty and uncompromising look at human nature in the most extreme of circumstances. An official Dogme 95 film (natural lighting, handheld cameras, no soundtrack), the film follows the fate of an unfortunate bunch of tourists. A bus half-full of Americans and Europeans veers 500 miles off course into the Namibian desert, only to run out of gas at an abandoned mining town, literally in the middle of nowhere. 

As rescue becomes more and more remote, one passenger suggests they help pass the time by staging a rendition of "King Lear", which he writes down from memory. Of course there are soon fights, alliances, sand-coated sex, and emotional breakdowns, all of which is to be expected... and inevitably the characters start to mirror their "King Lear" counterparts. 

Most of the characters are completely hateful people, and at times it is like watching a train wreck (or bus wreck?). But it is done so well, and the actors (many of them familiar to movie-goers, like Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bruce Davison) seem to relish the freedom of such raw filmmaking. Janet McTeer, as a bitter woman who is hostile and cruel to her husband (Davison), is particularly good. 

When the particular festival screening tape I watched suddenly ended and started rewinding two minutes before the end, I threw up my arms in disbelief and shock. This movie was so gripping, I didn't want to miss a minute.

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